DeeDee and Adrienne's Mission

Dear Loved ones,

Well another week is gone and we have had our usual busy.

Most Mondays we(the office staff) meet with President Maxwell and Sister Maxwell.  The previous week was a conference for all the area Mission presidents and their wives.  They came from the 5 missions in Australia, Fiji, Samoa, New Zealand, Tonga, the Marshall islands, Papua New Guinea plus area authorities.  It was held in Melbourne.  President Maxwell said it was marvelous and they were taught so much.

        Elder Tom Perry said, (no he wasn't there but the Area President Pearson quoted him.)  I am kept up at night by three things,

first and second, the health of the two men ahead of me, and third, because of the wickedness today people will come to the church and may not know why and will we have enough people to be leaders.

        Elder Pearson talked about Elder Oaks.  He was on track to be on the supreme court. He was called to be an apostle.  He had to define his divine identity.  Was he a lawyer and judge called to be an apostle or and apostle who used to be a lawyer and a judge.

We all need to define our divine identity.   

        Elder Pearson also said a mission for our youth is TO PREPARE FOR BEING AN ETERNAL FAMILY.

President Maxwell teaches us and we are trying to write what he tells us.  He even occasionally quotes his Dad, Neal A. Maxwell.

We went and visited one of the woman in the ward.  Her husband is totally inactive but she is active.  It was a great visit with a delightful couple. John Body her husband is totally inactive.  We walked in and right off the bat he said, "haven't been to church in a long time and I  not going back." He was very pleasant.  They are both from England and miss it very much.  But their children came to Australia so they followed.  He was 9 years old when the bombs started dropping in England. They both remember having children and some adults coming to the country to live with them, due to the bombing. We go as missionaries but don't teach a lesson, yet.  We did ask if we could leave a prayer with them and both quickly said yes.

We have a new couple in the mission.  The Latteiers.  They are from California, Oceanside.  They met in Vietnam while he was in the service.  She worked for his squadron.  They were the only two people that didn't drink. Long story short they were married in Sydney, Australia and in the temple.  The ward members, that they didn't know, arranged their wedding and reception and made a dress for her in two days. They are a great couple.  We needed a couple for the Vietnamese branch and here they are.  We drove them around all day Friday getting them set up in their house, getting luggage, phones etc.

We are so much more comfortable driving around.  We even ventured into downtown Melbourne, or the city as everyone calls it.

We met some friends of Caren and her friend Patti.  They were so fun and took us to lunch. We broke all rules, religion and politics but no arguing and they have invited us back to spend a day with them and see more of downtown.  Leonie and Jim.  I expect to stay close to them for next 17 months.

We taught Relief Society today and it went well,  Love One Another was the lesson.  The first counselor in the bishopric called us in and asked if we could substitute sometimes in Primary and then the YW president asked us to teach in two weeks. We do love our ward and loved the primary program today.  On the web cannonsisterscalledtoserve.blogspot.com.au we put a picture of two of the Samoan children in their native dress.  They were so excited to get their picture taken.  They were darling.

We are going with President and Sisters Maxwell and 8 couples to Tasmania for three days.  We are so excited.  It will be cold, of course, but they say it is beautiful and so we will take lots of pictures. We will be visiting the prisons, where all the convicts from England were sent.  It is called Port Arthur.  We will hold two fireside down there for President to talkeabout the need for senior couples.

If there is anyone at home that any of you know who would be interested in serving a mission down here let us know.

A new couple just moved in next door.  They are from India and she is a nurse.  We have introduced ourselves and they seem very nice.  She is really cute.  

We love you all and thought of you and all the children during the primary program.

Keep the letters coming.

Dee Dee and Adrienne, mom, grandma